Thursday, May 7, 2009

What did Abhisit tell the commanders after the Pattaya disaster?

Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva hasn't told local reporters about that particular scene when he called together military commanders and challenged them to stand by him after protestors broke into Royal Cliff Hotel in Pattaya, causing him to call off the Asean Plus Three and Plus Six meeting last month.

But he told two reporters from International Herald Tribune that after the incident he called a meeting of all the military commanders and asked them:

"Do you want to perform your duties of making sure ther is law and order? Do you want the country to fall into chaos? Do you want us to be a failed state? If not, action has to be taken."

The two IHT reporters -- Thomas Fuller and Seth Mydans -- had an exclusive interview with Ahisit and published this version of the incident on Wednesday, May 6.

IF that's true, it would have been a different Abhisit most Thais had known all along -- soften-spoken, polite and non-confrontational. But then, he would have been a "failed prime minister" had he not taken a no-nonsense stand under the circumstances.